


look

by ShanleenKinnJaskey



Series: Poetry [17]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Depressing, Free Verse, High School, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2015-10-19
Packaged: 2018-04-27 04:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5034286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShanleenKinnJaskey/pseuds/ShanleenKinnJaskey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>they say they teach us<br/>courage<br/>tolerance<br/>wisdom<br/>but they forget to mention<br/>that in these halls<br/>there are children walking by<br/>children forced to grow up<br/>too fast</p>
            </blockquote>





	look

they say they teach us  
     courage  
     tolerance  
     wisdom  
but they forget to mention  
that in these halls  
there are children walking by  
children forced to grow up  
     too fast

look left  
     and you'll find a girl who  
will take her life in two weeks  
because someone, once, called her  
      _worthless_  
and no one thought to stop  
the snowball rolling down a hill,  
picking up speed until  
it crushed out the breath in her lungs

look right  
     and you'll find a boy who  
thinks perfect is the number  
of hits he gets,  
that perfection can only be reached by  
working out every week  
(in a few years he'll have his dreams  
ripped away from him,  
gone in a haze of 'roid rage)

look behind  
and you'll find a child who has had the hope crushed out of them  
a boy who has been orphaned  
a girl who has been sexually harassed  
tell me where their hope has gone

how can you expect them to learn to  
     dream  
if they lost everything  
long before they had a chance to  
learn how love feels

bombarded by violence,  
by abuse and harsh words  
flung like daggers into the soft flesh  
of an innocent heart  
corroded away by people  
who are supposed to help  
and then ignore you when you ask them to  
_make it stop_  
_please make it stop_  
_i'll do anything to make it end_

vicious cycle,  
bleeding away at the hearts of children  
they weep in the silence,  
in the darkness of their rooms,  
and then return to school  
     cold as ice  
     hard as stone

they say they teach us  
     courage  
     tolerance  
     wisdom  
but how can you teach  
something   
the roots of which  
have been strangled?


End file.
